It was easy to predict what happened in Minneapolis. It’s what happens every time we give too much power and too little oversight.
By Josh Moon
What happened in Minneapolis on Wednesday was wrong.
You know it was wrong. You’ve seen the video by now of the ICE agent firing three times into a vehicle that was moving away from him. You know that there was no danger whatsoever to that officer, who was standing just inches from the front bumper of the SUV when 37-year-old mother Renee Good started to drive it forward and to the right, away from the officers.
Pretty basic physics tells us that she couldn’t have done serious harm to that man if she had tried. But we all also know that she wasn’t trying to do harm and was actually doing exactly what another officer had ordered her seconds earlier to do—leave.
More importantly, you know—or you should know—that the entire situation was the product of an out-of-control, reprehensible government agency that has hired ill-prepared, ill-tempered officers, armed them, given them free reign to assert absurdly unconstitutional control over American citizens and then been given little, if any, oversight whatsoever.
We know this because if you have spent more than 15 minutes on any social media platform over the past few weeks, you have undoubtedly viewed multiple videos of ICE officers, many in plain clothes and unmarked vehicles, entering private residences without warrants or probable cause, dragging teenagers off school campuses, terrorizing small children and moms at daycares and schools, assaulting U.S. citizens during meritless traffic stops and resorting to ridiculous levels of violence—often provoked only by the words of those who are offended by their illegal acts—over and over again.
You know it’s wrong.
Get the rightwing, maga talking points out of your head. Take a step back. Consider what you’ve witnessed out of this organization. Consider the treatment of your fellow Americans.
You do realize that Renee Good was your fellow American, right? You do realize that those Hispanic people who have been harassed outside of stores and during random traffic stops are just as much American as you, right?
What has happened all across this country where ICE is concerned is disgusting. The treatment that our elected officials on the right have overlooked is reprehensible and shameful.
And racist.
Really, really racist.
And you damn well know it.
You’ve heard the rhetoric. You’ve watched their actions. You’ve seen who they’re targeting and how they’re targeting them. Hell, they’ve argued in court that it’s legal to stop and question people who look Hispanic.
Seriously, can you imagine a bigger infringement on your rights in this country than being detained by masked government agents because of the way you look? The color of your skin? The accent with which you speak? The work that you do?
You might as well light the Bill of Rights on fire at this point.
These are good people that we’re disenfranchising. Good people who we’ve invited into this country. Good people whose only even potential crime in most cases is working illegally, doing jobs that Americans have refused to do. Good people who the overwhelming majority of Americans are perfectly happy to accept into this country.
And now, we’re supposed to accept the killing of more innocent people in the quest to terrorize those good people in the name of racism.
We’re supposed to accept all of that while simultaneously getting lectures on decency and proper behavior from the morally bankrupt cowards in the Republican Party who have stood silently by and allowed this to happen and made excuses for it all. That’s the same Republicans who just a day earlier were running a bus over the Capitol Police as they carried on yet another praise-fest of the naked emperor’s clothes and told fairytale stories of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The reality, however, is that Republicans, by cowering to a racist bully and his regime, have this blood on their hands. All of it.
They’re responsible, through their complete disregard for their job, for the entirety of the ICE debacle. They’ve allowed a branch of federal law enforcement to operate largely unchecked, while simultaneously employing individuals of questionable backgrounds who have little training. They’ve unleashed this monstrosity on American streets, watched these people repeatedly violate the laws and Constitution, and done nothing but make excuses for their behaviors.
If you’re truly surprised that Americans are angry over masked thugs coming into their neighborhoods, schools, businesses, churches and front yards and harassing, assaulting, wrongly arresting and generally mistreating their friends and neighbors, then, without question, you are a falling-down moron. Small children could have predicted this outrage and the inevitability of physical harm and death.
And you should resign.
If you consider yourself a decent human being, it’s time for you to take a stand. Not a violent stand. Not an illegal stand. But a stand for decency and goodness. Because you know damn well that what’s going on right now is not right, and it’s not what you told everyone you were voting for (if you voted for the 34-time felon in the White House). If you’re a person with some authority in this country, it’s way past time to get this situation under control by implementing proper oversight of ICE and what’s taking place with the entire immigration enforcement operation in this country.
This was supposed to be about true criminals. Not your friends and neighbors. It was going to be the drug dealers and bad actors. Not the moms who you see at the school, the guys who work construction or run the landscaping business.
Because you’ve lost the thread of this country. You’ve allowed callous, ignorant racists to seize control and punish people simply because of their skin color or birthplace. That ain’t strength and damn sure isn’t what America was built on.
America was built on the assurance that everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity or religion, would receive the same protections, the same rights and the same decency as everyone else. That’s the American promise. That’s what made this the shining beacon on a hill. It’s what has set us apart for our entire existence—that embracing of diversity and that welcoming spirit that offered everyone a fair shot and fair treatment.
It’s what actually makes us great.